Staff want Tarnaka RTC hospital to be Covid centre

Field personnel of services run by Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) want the organisationowned, 200-bed hospital to be converted into a Covid19 centre for taking care of corporation employees who contract the deadly virus.

Several employees of RTC that Deccan Chronicle spoke to point out that a substantial percentage of corporation employees have contracted Covid-19 during the second wave and over 300 of them have lost their lives. TSRTC has total staff of around

49,000.Coming to city services, corporation workers point out that the corporation is operating only 40 percent of busses without restrictions on number of passengers they can carry. As such, most times, there is no physical distancing. More so, during the first phase of Coronavirus, buses and depots were being sanitised. The same is not happening during the second phase.

Kamalakar, a traffic controller of Kukutpally depot, said, “The management tosses aside sanitisation of depots and busses saying, “Virus is now airborne. How will sanitising of surfaces help.”

As per an estimate, so far, 329 corporation employees have lost their lives to Covid-19. “Management-opted hospitals for employees’ treatments are not so good. If our Tarnaka RTC hospital is converted into a Covid19 centre, it will serve a great purpose,” another employee remarked.

Usha, a lady conductor of Ranigunj Depot, has been working since past

25 years. She points out: “There is no proper safety for us. Each bus is operating with full capacity of passengers, even though the second wave is more virulent. Each day, we hear about two or three of our colleagues dying. Though we wear masks, we don’t think that will give us full safety. In a few areas, people do not even wear masks. Only after a prolonged argument, they take out the mask from their pocket and put it on. We are afraid of carrying the infection into our homes.”